Author
Topic: Anycubic 4max (Read 146 times)

I had been looking at this printer for a while when it came on sale on ebay and with the make an offer button enabled well I couldnt help my self I bought one and, I have to say its a very nicely made machine but rather heavy,Anyway heres some pics

The build was pretty quick it has a very good manual and some parts are pre assembled, The extruder is a crappy mk8 thing which will be changed for a titan aero,but it appers to be a nice printer even if a little slow compared to my delta'sI'm hoping to mainly use it for printing ABS

Heres a few pics of the first few prints

I found the supplied nozzle to be a bit dribbly so changed that to the normal e3d type I use and it was much better

be a shame not to take advantage of it pre-built enclosure and use it with abs.

I did note they used a Mk8 rig when I first had a nose at one of these when it came up on GB (iirc) and immediately thought it was kinda a waste to slap that heavy cumbersome thing on there and it'd definitely benefit from the weight loss going to a e3d (not to mention the performance).

get yourself a piece of clear acrylic for a enclosure lid, a thermostatic control board and cut a fan into the acrylic lid, presto youve got yourself a fully enclosed temperature modulated setup, does wonders for layer consistency when doing large scale prints in ABS (pretty much eliminates just about any remaining concerns with edge warping you might have when using abs....also good for keeping moisture away from installed Petg )

I'm hoping to use it for mainly ABS prints but at the moment I'm getting the edges shrinking, I'm not sure if its this ultrabase print surface that auto releases prints when it cools thats not holding it tight enough

I'm hoping to use it for mainly ABS prints but at the moment I'm getting the edges shrinking, I'm not sure if its this ultrabase print surface that auto releases prints when it cools thats not holding it tight enough

Ive tried just about every surface available recommended for ABS and I can say categorically NOTHING beats Kapton on a 3mm SS plate heated by a silicone pad.

Ive found Kapton in general to be the best option with ABS, atleast from my own experience.

the SS plate setup I made for my PolturXL hasnt failed me once yet....

piece of jet/laser cut 200x300x3mm SS plate...

sat on four corner stand-off feet (not fastened down, the weight of the plate itself prevents it lifting and moving)...

can even get away with using an undersized heat pad (mine being a 200x200 for a 200x300 print surface), the plate distributes the heat that well...

and cos its SS its both ideal for conductive bed level sensors and works well with optional magnetic bed surfaces (or alternatively like myself you get yourself some of the Magnetic sheets and simply coat the back of whatever you wanna use for surface and that way it comes straight off the print bed clean and quick without damaging the Kapton layer already in place....

cant tell ya how much faffing about it saves me when I want to quickly swap to flexi filament but dont want the ballache of trying to prise it off the Kapton without it wrecking something....just print... whip off the printbite...go back to ABS, job done.

then theres the speed the pad heats..... none of this waiting for stock type heat beds taking half an hour to get to temp PAH!, 3-4 mins and mines at 120c and thats just a 12v 200x200 cheapo BangGood buy, add the Kapton into the mix and you cant get an ABS print to even lift a milli of corner even if you tried (well short of having your bed terribly leveled obviously )

did intended to have multiple pieces of SS with different bed surfaces each meant for different jobs but I struck on the magnetic sheet idea before I went that far, plate can still be removed from the printer post print and cooled for quick release though which means limited down time between prints

Since I posted I have put the ABS on one of the deltas which is fully open and only has a cheap print bed sticker and the prints have come out perfect no warping at all, so my conclusion is that although the Ultrabase surface is very good for PLA it simply doesnt work very well with ABS, so at some point,I'm gonna have to change the bed because the Ultrabase and heat bed are all the same part,I'm not sure which option to go for yet but I'am leaning towards something with PEI ive used that on my other machines and had no problems,I'am interested in the magnetic stuff and will look into that

you'd be surprised just how much effect the surrounding environment has on ABS prints, its a bit of a contradictory statement but its very beneficial to keep you abs printing well out of random airflow and breezes/drafts, I say contradictory because at the same time ABS produces often unpleasant vapours and smells which really should be vented away

I do intend to print fully enclosed but I have had the problems with shrinkage on the 4max which is pretty well enclosed already and couldnt work out why,testing ABS on the open delta just proved to me that there is nothing wrong with the ABS its the fancy print surface in the 4max thats the problem, it simply doesnt hold on to the ABS very well, once this Ultrabase print bed cools the print isnt stuck at all its loose which has been great on PLA prints but a disaster on ABS,where did you buy your magnetic gear from ?

Ive ran my heatbed at 120c for over 6hrs with that stuff on it (tbh cant see you needing to run at that temp for extended periods but I just wanted to test its durability, usually run bed at 100c for ABS) and it suffered no ill effects so no worry about it going soft or melting, flexible and tough enough to simply stick it directly to whatever print surface your wanting to use (eg PEI, Printbite....even Painters tape) then you can just slap it on your heatbed and whip it back off when done, quick flex and "pop" off comes your print

the surface probably like most things "3d printing" has a temp heat sweet spot with ABS but its sounds like its no where near were you'd expect if your struggling to find it, spoilt for choice nowadays with bed surfaces so just go with whatever works with you deltas, least you know that does the job.

just a quick thought but have you tested the beds heat dispersion?, bad heat spread will mess with your prints everytime, run it up to temp and run your infrared thermometer back and forward across it to see if there's any large heat variance.... ya never know, might be something as simple as the bed having a bad/broken trace, in which case you should be able to get a replacement under warranty.